School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses
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ItemConcealing Nietzsche : a study of esoteric and exoteric rhetorical strategy( 2004)This thesis is concerned with the difference between the form and the content of Nietzsche's writing. The deliberate insistence on this difference by Nietzsche indicates an understanding that form and content communicate not just in different ways, but essentially communicate different things-which is to say, the essence of their communication is different. Otherwise put, Nietzsche did not always say, or rather write, what he meant. This is partly due to the way in which Nietzsche saw language, and partly due to the way he understood truth. The two, of course, are related. In this thesis, I therefore examine the problem of truth in Nietzsche's thought. The critical question for Nietzsche concerns the value of truth, or otherwise stated, the very possibility of truth. Is truth discovered, or is it created? My view is that according to Nietzsche, truth is created, but that this does not thereby commit us to some kind of relativistic pluralism. Part of the problem then, is how to determine what Nietzsche means. This problem is essentially a hermeneutic one, which is as it should be, according to a philologist and professional interpreter of texts. I therefore begin my own interpretation by examining another one, well-known in Nietzsche-scholarship, as one which resists the claim that we can determine what Nietzsche meant. On Derrida's account, there is no totality to Nietzsche's text, and therefore the text itself is opened up to an indeterminate number of possible meanings. My own view, contra Derrida, is that the form of Nietzsche's writing, that is to say, the context, style and imagery, amongst other things, reveals to us an otherwise concealed meaning-concealed for good reasons, for Nietzsche believes that not all truths are appropriate for everyone. This strategy of right speaking turns upon that element of Nietzsche's thinking called perspectivism. In addressing this issue, I draw a distinction between esoteric and exoteric perspectives for Nietzsche, arguing for a reappraisal of what may be said to constitute Nietzsche's hidden teaching-a teaching imparted not so much by the content of Nietzsche's writing, but by its form. Nietzsche conceals, but in so doing, he reveals his face to us.